Interior Secretary Manuel Mar” Roxas II. Screengrab from INQUIRER.net video
Farmers’ and fishermen’s groups on Friday shot down President Benigno Aquino III’s endorsement of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas as his successor, saying they hardly benefited from the Aquino administration’s programs and policies.
In a statement, Salvador France, vice chair of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), said Roxas would “not get [a sliver of] support” from his group.
France said Roxas was “just another landlord… and [an] inutile government official who [would] continue the hypocrisy of Aquino’s ‘daang matuwid’,” the administration’s code word for its reform program.
“He already showed his true colors when he refused to help the victims of Supertyphoon ‘Yolanda’ in Tacloban just because their local government is Aquino’s political rival,” France said. “Majority of the supertyphoon victims are small fishermen and [up to] now, [no substantial help has come] from the government.”
Also on Friday, the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) said it wanted to hear Roxas spell out his platform and policy directions for the agriculture sector first.
Smuggling
“Unfortunately, slogans like daang matuwid did not deter the wanton smuggling of agricultural commodities and also did not spur the growth of the sector,” Sinag chair Rosendo So said in an interview.
Citing data culled from government statistics, So said the government may have lost P8.4 billion last year to illegal trade of six agricultural commodities —rice, onion, garlic, and meat of pig, chicken and carabao.
He said rice smuggling alone deprived the government of P5.6 billion in tax revenue on trade that had a market value of almost P21 billion.
“In the past five years, there was minimal increase in the gross value added for agriculture, and instead incentives were given to foreign agribusiness firms,” So said.
“The road toward a precipice is likewise straight and many among us in the rural areas are at the edge already,” he added. “But for smugglers and foreign firms, daang matuwid is an express lane to profit.”
Clean record
Pamalakaya also played down Roxas clean record.
“[H]e also doesn’t have a track record of contributing to the betterment of the country and the Filipino people,” France said. “He is mediocre and is not qualified to run the country.”
France added: “We remind the public not to fall for persuasive and sugar-coated lies because we already hear those lines from [President] Aquino.”